I. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus designed to cancel at least one postage or franking mark on a surface of a mailpiece that is moving on edge in a belt conveyor.
II. Discussion of the Background Art
Patent Document EP-906 792 discloses such apparatus for canceling/defacing postage or franking duty marks. In that apparatus, means are provided for determining the number of rows of franking duty marks to be canceled on the mailpiece in order to control the print heads.
Patent Document US2004/0218958 also discloses apparatus suitable for detecting the position of a postage or franking mark on a mailpiece that is moving, so as to control selective printing of a zone corresponding to the surface to be cancelled.
In general, postal authorities require the cancellation mark (which, inter alia, indicates the name of the postal authority, its logo, the number of the postal sorting center, and the date and time of the cancellation) to be printed, if possible, such that it is centered on the franking mark or on each franking mark when the same mailpiece bears more than one franking mark. A mailpiece being conveyed on edge at high speed in a belt conveyor can find itself in a position in which its bottom edge does not touch the slide bed of the conveyor (the mailpiece is “flying”). In which case, the top edge of the mailpiece can find itself in a free zone between two belts, and the franking mark on the surface of the mailpiece can thus find itself either partially hidden by a belt or partially visible in the vicinity of the top edge of the mailpiece. In such critical situations, a cancellation mark cannot be printed in such a manner as to be centered on the franking mark.